On April 18, Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed into law a bill that will require truck drivers to complete training on recognizing the signs of human trafficking before obtaining their commercial drivers license. Arkansas is the first state to pass this kind of legislation.

With the support of the Arkansas Trucking Association, the bill was sponsored by Rep. Charlotte Douglas (R-75th) and co-sponsored by Sen. Linda Collins Smith (R-19th).

A recent court decision came down to a missing comma when a Maine court sided with a group of dairy truck drivers in a dispute on overtime pay.

In May 2014, a group of dairy truck drivers sued Maine-based Oakhurst Dairy for $10 million in overtime pay. Oakhurst Dairy cited a Maine law that said that certain jobs are exempt from overtime pay. Oakhurst Dairy won that lawsuit.

A proposal to put highway funding measures on the Arkansas ballot in 2018 failed to get a majority (51 votes) in the House when a group challenged the proposal’s inclusion of a fuel tax increase.

The house bill, sponsored by Rep. Dan Douglas (R-91st District) proposed allowing voters to approve the state Highway Commission issuing bonds for 20 years and paying those bonds with a 6.5 percent sales tax increase on the wholesale price of gasoline and diesel.